Ethical Fashion as Post-postmodern Phenomenon

Postmodern era has often been described as ruled by aesthetic imperatives, that is by the image culture. It means that emotion and taste, which modernity confined to the margins of its rational and productive world view, gain new force and consideration. Clothing does not respond to fixed hierarchies any longer, but to a dream of beauty or a masquerade. The recent debate about cultural economy and aesthetic markets though has clearly shown that economic rationality and aesthetic taste are inescapably intertwined when producers and consumers make their choices. Further on, the ethical/slow/ sustainable fashion movement proves that our social imaginary can be enriched with an unexpected ethically driven capacity, through which we can combine aesthetic innovation with the inescapable need to think up rationally planned solutions for a global social justice and healthier life. Postmodern aestheticism is overcome but not totally denied. Post-postmodern imagination appears to be able to challenge modern dichotomies, as well as the one opposing modern to postmodern, and even some gender bias.